Buddy Thomas: I'll always remember 'Machine Gun Mac'

Thursday

Jul 24, 2014 at 12:01 AM

High school athletes come and go. Sadly, some go way too soon, like Billy McMillan, the former Bishop Stang basketball star of the 1970s who died suddenly on June 25 at his adopted home in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. He was 57 and had lived on the west coast for more than three decades.

BUDDY THOMAS

High school athletes come and go. Sadly, some go way too soon, like Billy McMillan, the former Bishop Stang basketball star of the 1970s who died suddenly on June 25 at his adopted home in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. He was 57 and had lived on the west coast for more than three decades.

By his own admission, Billy was a warm weather guy who once told me he got his energy from the California sun. But it was during three winters in Massachusetts where the Fall River native warmed the hearts of high school basketball fans with his play in the tiny gymnasium at Spartan Village.

Billy played three seasons of varsity basketball at Bishop Stang, all of them under legendary coach John C. O'Brien, who once labeled his 6-foot-2 guard as "potentially the finest player to ever come out of Stang." That was in McMillan's sophomore year.

The two shared a mutual admiration and, for both, it was more than just respect.

By his own admission, Billy loved his coach, and he often showed that love years after his graduation, in 1974, by returning for various school functions organized by O'Brien. He kept in constant contact with his coach or people at Spartan Village after O'Brien became seriously ill, and when the coach passed away in February of 1985, no one was more devastated than Billy.

I don't remember him playing any other sport in high school, but his exploits on the basketball court were unforgettable.

Like the night of Feb. 22, 1974. It was "Machine Gun Mac's" final regular-season home game in a Spartan uniform and the gymnasium was filled to capacity. The team had struggled through a trying 6-12 season and had long since been eliminated from postseason tournament consideration. But the spotlight was focused directly on the star guard from Fall River, who was eight points shy of becoming the second player in school history to record 1,000 points in three varsity seasons.

The opponent was Fairhaven, and after one quarter Billy had six points. Less than two minutes into the second quarter, he found a seam in the Fairhaven defense, drove the lane and finished a layup to reach the milestone. The game stopped and a three-minute standing ovation followed as Billy was presented a basketball commemorating the achievement.

Billy finished the game with a team-high 27 points to lead Bishop Stang to an 84-59 victory. He was now paired with Kevin Phelan as the only two players in school history to score 1,000 points in three seasons (Paul Matheson topped 1,000 points in a four-year career), but he could barely crack a smile. That would come later in a post-game pose with his parents.

But Billy's words expressed his true feelings.

"I guess you could call it the brightest light in an otherwise very dim season," he said following his record-setting effort. That's how I will always remember Billy McMillan.

He truly cared more about sharing success with his teammates than winning individual honors, and he managed to share success one more time in high school. That came when he led Bishop Stang to four consecutive victories that wrapped up the Bay State Class C Tournament, which consisted of teams that fell short of qualifying for the EMass Tournament.

"That championship took a little of the sting out of the kind of season we had," he said. "It proved we were capable of playing winning basketball."

I don't know if he was, in the words of his coach, "the finest player to come out of Stang," but he was clearly among the most genuine high school stars I've ever met.

After attracting the interest of several colleges in his junior year, Billy said "thanks, but no thanks" to such schools as Duke, Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Lafayette to enroll at nearby Stonehill College where, in his own words, "he had a better chance to play right away." He did just that, and he played pretty well before graduating in 1979.

On Aug. 10, the second of two memorial services in his honor will be held in the Pettit Atrium of the Thomas and Mary Shields Science Center on the Stonehill campus from 2-5 p.m. and all are welcome. The first was held last Sunday in California.

I only saw Billy three or four times after he graduated from Stang, but I never forget him. All of the unplanned meetings came at a Bishop Stang basketball game or related school function in the storied gymnasium, and every greeting was genuine Billy.

"I love this school," he would said while paying homage to the nickname I gave him by posing in the machine gun-shooting position. "This is coach O'Brien's home and every time I come here I feel I'm with him again."

Hopefully, they are back together again.

Rest in peace my friend, and say hello to John for me.

Buddy Thomas' column appears weekly in The Standard-Times. He can be reached at bthomas@s-t.com.

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